Ely S. Parker

Ely Samuel Parker (1828-31 August 1895) was a US Army colonel who served as adjutant and secretary to Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War; during Grant's presidency, Parker was the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Biography
Hasanoanda was born in Indian Falls, New York in 1828 to a Baptist Seneca family. He adopted the name "Ely Samuel Parker" after being baptized, and he was unable to become a lawyer due to the inability of Native Americans to hold American citizenship until 1924. He instead worked as a civil engineer until the start of the American Civil War, and he befriended Ulysses S. Grant while working in Galena, Illinois. During the war, Parker's idea to raise an Iroquois volunteer regiment was rejected, as was his application to join the army. However, Grant - whose army was low on engineers - made Parker the chief engineer of his 7th Division during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863 and made him his adjutant during the Chattanooga campaign. At the Siege of Petersburg, he was made Grant's military secretary and given the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He helped to draft the surrender documents at Appomattox Court House, and a surrender Robert E. Lee told him that he was glad to see "one real American" there; Parker shook his hand and said, "We are all Americans." He was brevetted a Brigadier-General, and he resigned from the army in 1869. From 1869 to 1871, he served as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and he died in poverty in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1895 and buried next to Red Jacket in New York.